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Are Cellphones needed?

by Kunal Nayak

This is my first try at blogging and also my first post on this blog. So please be nice 🙂 Also, please comment and like for supporting me! It would mean a lot to me…

How many of you have seen, heard, owned, used or even longed for one of these:

iPhones by Apple Inc.?

That was a rhetoric question because you, me and even the stupid pigeon on my window grill outside knows the answer to the question!

I guess I am feeling inspired about this topic, since the newer, fancier, shinier but not-so technologically advanced iPhone 6 and her sis, iPhone 6 Plus came out a little time ago. I have a very strange head which starts musing about random topics in the strangest of places and times (for example while sitting on one of the most peaceful places in the world-the loo!) and this topic just popped into my head in the same way something else popped off my body (if you know what I mean).

So why is the iPhone so famous? No, no- discussing that will take a long time and effectively leave this world in the wake of World War Tri between Android fans and Apple fans. So let us focus on iPhone 6 and 6 Plus for now! What is it that makes iPhone 6 and 6 Plus better than-say- iPhone 5 and 5S?

Let’s take a look directly of the comparison between the phones off of the popular website FoneArena, shall we?

Do you notice the most significant difference, the one that catches your eye the most than all the other small differences? The number has been incremented from 5 to 6! Yes, that is it. That is how the world works now, I guess! Release a new phone, months later release a slightly better version. Some more months later, release a slightly better version than that!

Is this how the cellphone industry works now?

And its not just with Apple! Hell no! ALL, and I mean ALL (I will literally give you all my money if you show me otherwise), are doing this. I don’t even want to talk about how Samsung turned into the 2010+ version of Nokia by producing SO FRIGGING MANY Galaxy phones now!

“They just want to make money.”

One thing I did notice, while I was forced to stare at the beautiful people taking selfies, or showing off their new phones with advanced features in the Youtube Ads, or any other ads, is that although the companies who make these phones have enough money to make a wonderful beast of a phone with ALL of the features, they DONT.

Why is that I wondered, and talked to a very ‘insightful’ person in my life. Lets call him iPerson for the sake of anonymity.

Mr iPerson asked me one simple question: if he had sold me a phone with ALL the features advanced so much that it would be technologically new for years and years, would you buy another phone of theirs, EVER?

And the answer ‘No!’ rose to my lips like anything. And it made complete sense. The moment they would make a perfect phone, the rest of the products would stop selling!!! This would directly lead to a grand loss for their companies.

This is when another realization struck me: they just want to make money.

Now I know what you are thinking: This is so obvious! Why else would they be making cellphones? For money only, right? Douche!

But guess what?

This concept is applied to the simplest of things. Everything, from a simple `1 chocolate to these costly cellphones(that will leave a gaping hole in your pocket) are a means of making money. You sell something mediocre by presenting it in the best of the ways possible. You hide the flaws so cleverly by shoving everything else into the customers’ faces so that they don’t have time to notice them! And this is very clever indeed.

This is how the battery is supposed to be in the first place

I mean, just think of Steve Jobs. Isn’t this what his plan was when he first presented the iPhone to the world?

A really, really clever idea is to present your product so sweetly, so sugar-coatedly that they never focus on the spicy, bitter or horrible the product is inside! That is how the world works!

“Cellphones are bad only if you make them bad.”

I tried to understand, for some time, how it works. Why is there such a big BOOM in the Mobile industry… And I found the answer, mostly because it is fairly obvious: because people are stupid enough to buy them!

Now, before your mind turns to bashing this post or giving it the choicest swear words, let us be clear: I love cellphones; I enjoy new tech as much as the next person; I love the plethora of choices I have when I want to buy a new phone.

But the thing is this: everyone needs cellphone in this day and age. Those who deny this are either old and of not the current generation or are plain stupid. Don’t get me wrong- if you don’t want a cellphone, you are free to not use one. But saying ‘cellphones are a waste of time’ OR ‘cellphone is taking away the fun out of life and turning it more virtual than real’ is just plain wrong. I know it is a sad but true fact that cellphones are addictive and are taking away alot of time, space and money in our life, and there are a few compensations that are done in order to fit the slimmest piece of black (or nowadays White, Gold, Pink and even Maroon coloured phone!) box in our lives! But that is how the world works and has been working for a long time.

Every single time, mankind makes a new leap in scientific discovery, there is always someone that doesn’t like it. And that is fine. Any kind of addiction is bad. Cellphone addiction is not an exception either. So one should know the fine line between using it for work or leisure, or using it as a way of life!

“Are cellphones needed?”

This brings me to the last question, and the namesake of this post: Are they really needed?

Let it be iPhone, Samsung Galaxy S, T, U whatever or LG G3, how do they affect our lives positively?

I believe strongly that anything done in control is fine. The same is my opinion when it comes to cellphones. Addiction is bad and cellphones are one of the things that ruins your life. BUT ONLY WHEN YOU LET THEM!

I cannot even begin to tell you how many times cellphones have helped me. In some cases, they have even saved me. They have made me grow. Connecting me to the internet, they have made me learn things that I simply cannot learn from books! They have brought me closer to some of my friends who I had lost contact with and also have helped me keep touch with them from a million miles away (even though people say otherwise!) I have made sure that cellphones do not take over my life and also that I avoid being too dependent on it.

Most of the times, a cellphone is bought for style, showing off and status in peer groups! And that is not just wrong but sad.

I mean think about. REALLY THINK ABOUT IT. Can you really justify spending above `20,000 on a cellphone? I know, that if I ask someone a question like ‘Why buy an iPhone?’ I will be bombarded with answers like

‘For impressing, dude’ or

‘IT HAS AN AMAZING CAMERA’ or

‘Just the UI is awesome’ or

‘Its just so fast’ or

‘It has all my favourite apps’ or…you get the idea, right?

And to all these people, I say: “WHAT THE?”

If you need a phone to impress someone, then you are not worth having company off!

SINCE WHEN ARE YOU PURUSING PHOTOGRAPHY? I know that good pictures need a good camera but buying a frigging 40, 000 phone (or in Apple users cases, 60,000) for its camera is plain stupid (don’t you feel?). I mean, there are better, cheaper phones with a nice camera and if you really want to be a good photographer or want to take good selfies, improve your skills, not the camera. (A bad workman blames his tools)

Again, wasting so much money “because it looks shiny” is another way of getting a ticket to Stupid City!

If it is fast, then you will never learn patience. And why would you want to waste so much energy and hence money on such a device? I am sure there are better choices!

Favourite apps? I think you have a very costly taste!

“What have we learnt today, folks?”

Well, in conclusion, I would like to say: thanks. For giving this post a read. Its my first try at blogging and these are just my feelings. If you have different opinions (which you, as a reader, are entitled to), please voice them to me in the comments! I feel that wasting so much money for getting your hands on “Flagship Devices” is pure wastage. But maybe because I do no like wasting my parents’ money on a phone.
Again, I am not saying that buying a new phone is wrong! I am not discouraging people from buying good phones. But it is YOUR decision: whether you can live with a good, but cheaper phone or you want to use all your savings (or in most cases, your parents’ savings) on a phone. Because either ways, the phone will take over your life if you don’t stop it. You gotta draw the line somewhere, right?

I also feel that people like your parents, teachers or older relatives who say having a phone is a sin is not only wrong but also being ignorant. If you have the will power to keep the cellphones at bay, if you have the strong support of your brilliant (*wink*) mind to not let you be dependent on them, then it is fine to have a phone.

Please leave a comment and share this post if it brought a smile, frown or laughter to your face!Most images are taken from Google.